Coalitions and thresholds
The misconceptions about the subject of electoral thresholds and coalition governments are as untenable as they are unbelievable. The latest is Charles Camilleri's letter (July 19), which cites Italy as an example of instability because of coalition...
The misconceptions about the subject of electoral thresholds and coalition governments are as untenable as they are unbelievable. The latest is Charles Camilleri's letter (July 19), which cites Italy as an example of instability because of coalition governments and Britain as one of stability because of its one-party governments.
Point one: The governments in the 25 EU countries, apart from Malta and UK, are made up of a coalition of parties (in Sweden the socialists are externally supported by Greens and the Left). Does this make all the EU countries mad and just Malta and UK the sane examples to follow?
Point two: Italy is always pointed out as a disastrous example. Well, with its "disastrous" coalition culture, Italy has developed into the fifth or sixth strongest economy in the world. When the one-party Maltese government (whether led by Lawrence Gonzi or Alfred Sant is totally immaterial!) gets Malta into the first six strongest economies in the world in GDP per capita terms, or even in the EU, I will concede that coalition governments are bad ones!
Point three: in all EU countries that have a proportional electoral system with a national threshold, the threshold can be 1.8 per cent (Cyprus); three per cent (Denmark, Hungary, Greece); four per cent (Sweden, Italy), at maximum five per cent (Poland, Germany)... and never more than five per cent.
But in Malta, fior del mondo, Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant have agreed (behind AD and civil society's back) to introduce a 7.5 per cent threshold... because we are the one and only real democratic country in the EU and the rest of the 25 must learn from our illuminated political leaders!
Mr Camilleri concludes his letter by stating that: "With the two-party system, Malta has achieved miracles since independence in spite of small periods of political uncertainty. Why return to a system which brings political instability and hampers progress?".
Is Mr Camilleri still so sure that he can go and tell the citizens of Finland, France, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and all the other EU countries that "their system brings political instability and hampers progress"?